There are many common occasions when it is necessary to provide a safe temporary pathway for people to traverse form one position to another. For example, when there is a fire or toxic chemical spill in multi-story structures it is very often necessary to evacuate people from upper stories of the structure in order to remove them from actual or potential danger zones. Conventional metal fire escape stairs are not included on the exteriors of all multi-story buildings, and even when such stairs are present, it is not always safe to use them in order to pass floors where fires or chemical fumes are present. Furthermore, such stairs are not convenient to use when it is necessary to carry injured or weak persons who are unable to walk. Also, there are times when flooding creates conditions where people must be rescued from roof tops or upper level stories of buildings or from the opposite side of rivers, etc.
The disadvantages and limitations associated with other types of rescue equipment such as ladder trucks and helicopters include high cost and limited application. There has not heretofore been provided suitable apparatus for general and convenient use in rescue operations.
Although a roll-up pontoon bridge has been disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 951,379, and a roll out dock has been disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,397,546, such structures are not suitable for use in rescuing people from buildings, etc. The linkage bridge described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,024,595 includes link members coupled together. When the link members are rolled out from a reel they form a horizontal platform. To provide strength to the platform a reinforcement rod is passed lengthwise through eyelets on the underside of each link in the structure. There are no sides to the structure; there is only the linear floor.